It looks like at least two universities are inviting candidates already (Purdue, Lancaster). Are these likely to be exploding offer situations? I cannot imagine being one of the candidates put into the position of having make such an important decision before knowing if he or she is being considered elsewhere.

Purdue is already bringing in people? For cognitive? Ad said they would start reviewing 10/15… I mean, my stuff's already in, but that barely even sounds fair. So what was the point of the Oct 15 deadline then?

I think the OP is referring to the HDFS job, which had said they'd start reviewing 9/1.

An exploding offer is one where the dept expects a quick turn around on the decision, particularly when you haven't heard from other places you have interviewed or are on the short list for. I'm imagining a lot of jobs will turn out this way this year, considering the number of extremely early deadlines.

My advice to anyone who gets an exploding offer is to take it. I took one 20 years ago. It was awesome to have a job. I only experienced minor twinges when I got called for interviews at other places—having a job is pretty good in terms of buffering regret! And it all worked out. A friend at the time who was also on the job market refused an interview for a job that had an exploding offer. He did not get a job at all that year.

Thanks everyone. I was just curious in this case, but it is interesting. I can't say I blame departments for posting early deadlines (for a multitude of reasons - hiring jump, getting it done early in the year, multiple searches, and so on). For candidates, though, I imagine it adds stress.

Yeah the exploding offers really suck. Where I am now went early and even though I talked them into an extension, I couldn't get them to extend into the spring semester (the offer came in November). Meanwhile, in early January I heard back from five more places offering interviews. But I was basically thisclose to signing with my current school. I *MIGHT* have ended up at the best possible place for me, but I might not have! It's impossible to know! I absolutely love my job but I did have to make some family sacrifices to be here, so I do think about what could have been had I stayed on longer (the other jobs were in better locations for the family.) And at the same time I had another offer that was even more strict, so I had to turn them down. Again, though, I even wonder about them with regard to how it would have gone for my family; also in a better location for us. The grass is always greener. A colleague of mine ended up at one of the schools that I had turned down that was in a better location, and I've discovered that his teaching load is not quite what I thought it was, as in the job seems actually better than what I had thought it was. I'm really glad he got the job because I respect and admire him, but I'm also sad that I had to drop out of the running there. Oh well!

I took an exploding offer last year, and even though it is tough to get interview invites after the fact I have been very happy with my decision and the piece of mind about having a job was great. Also, I'm not sure what others' application approach was, but I ONLY applied to places where I would be happy going. I did not simply apply to every job in my area. Limiting your application pool to places you would actually go makes accepting an exploding offer much easier.